I’m a day time guy. In my latest EMS existence in Shefford, I work the day shift. Six am to six pm. Granted, in the middle of February, daylight begins just after 7 am and ends just after 5 pm but I still get to operate in the day time. […]
EMS
This is a repub of a 2008 Norm Rooker column. “You’re not dead?!” Just what is the correct response when this is the initial greeting from someone who knew you from back when? The occasion was the 2008 Fire-Rescue Med Conference in Las Vegas. I was attending the national roll […]
I wrote this stream-of-consciousness piece as a ‘soundtrack’ for a series of mixedtapes sent to a few well chosen friends. Have you ever considered Condition White? Condition White is the lowest end of the mental awareness spectrum developed by American law enforcement instructor Jeff Cooper. Condition White, according to the […]
A nugget of EMS organizational wisdom every day. #6 Look, listen & feel. Look, listen & feel. Those three words were ingrained into my consciousness a long time ago – long before I was ever charged with leading a team of emergency medical services [EMS] providers. And yet, sometimes the […]
Norm Rooker’s piece on Ghosts got me thinking about the two EMS ghosts I’ve been carrying with me for a long while and whether or not it might be time to share their stories. They are both old ghosts of young men who died many years ago long before their […]
Ghosts (part 1) by Norm Rooker How many of you have read Joe Connelly’s 1998 semi-fictional book ‘Bringing Out The Dead’? Joe, a former New York City EMS paramedic, spun a very realistic tale of the dark side of EMS. The parts they don’t tell you about, or at best […]
I’ll just go ahead and tell the story. “Step up, tell the truth and take responsibility for your actions and all will be big medicine.” When I said those words I was the newly-minted director of a small Emergency Medical Services department in suburban Montreal attempting to establish an organizational […]
Stanstead QC | December 13- Big Update to Announce: The quest to build The Playlist for The Big One now includes an opportunity for artists to submit their tunes to Big Med on Sonicbids. http://www.sonicbids.com/BigMedicine2 For those of you who don’t know, Sonicbids helps bands get gigs and promoters book […]
You can hear it in their voices. They are the first of the first responders to reach the scene. You can hear something in the tone of the first few seconds of their first update transmitted from the scene. No matter how polished and professional they may be just a […]
Stanstead QC | Back when I was the newly-minted director of a small EMS service, my boss called me in for my six-month evaluation. He said, “I’ve got good news and bad news.” I told him to give me the bad news first. “As a leader you’re a real disaster.” […]